Photo credit: Mail Jonietz
The chaos at Twitch continues as the platform has banned CardboardCowboy. The only problem? He only streams his own music on his channel.
Prominent YouTubers are already calling on other YouTubers to join them in boycotting the platform. On June 6, Twitch unveiled new policies that would ban “baked-in” ads. This new policy cuts off a significant portion of Twitch streamers’ revenue streams. Hence, many YouTubers started discussing the changes and possible alternatives on social media.
“I don’t say it lightly, but I think this is a legitimate situation where streamers should consider boycotting Twitch or moving to other platforms,” said Asmongold, a hugely popular MMO streamer tweeted about the changes. “Create common and harmless forms of advertising against Twitch ToS so that Twitch can monopolize more of the streamer’s income.”
Meanwhile, some streamers who have left the platform entirely are praising other platforms. YouTube Gaming continues to maintain a 70/30 revenue split with creators and offers more discoverability with its YouTube Shorts feature, which mimics TikTok’s “Discovery” feed. Due to Twitch’s arbitrary enforcement of its rules, some are questioning whether they should abandon the platform altogether.
CardboardCowboy saw his account banned from Twitch after streaming music to which he owned the rights. The streamer appealed the ban, but that appeal was denied, without explaining why the original ban even remains in place, merely that it “violated the community guidelines.”
“What exactly was the infraction?” He tweets at Twitch Support. “What do I need to change to not violate the Terms of Service? There was no discussion with me as to why my appeal was denied. Just this confusing email. It would be really helpful if you could be clear about what you are doing and why you are doing it.”
Apparently CardboardCowboy is not permitted to enjoy a lo-fi channel that plays music 24/7. Even if he owns 100% of the rights to it. When he proved this, Twitch refused to lift the ban even though CardboardCowboy had been a partner for over five years. After the ban, CardboardCowboy, like so many others, moved his channel to YouTube.